Jase Potter and the Phoenix Syndrome
by Perchance A Primrose
Summary: James Sirius Potter-Dursley, who much prefers simply Jase doesn't know why he can't remember anything before his seventh birthday but honestly, he doesn't really worry about it, that is until he recieves a mysterious letter from a school called Hogwarts.
1. Prologue

Hagrid looked at the remains of the crumpled houses, feeling the dreadful case of déjà vu. His heart was like a lead balloon about to pop in the pit of his stomach as hot, salty tears slowly worked their way out of his black eyes and down his large face. There was a tightness across his chest that made it hard for him to breathe but none of that was anywhere near as bad as the crushing unbearable hopelessness that was crashing down on him as his heart broke.

They were so naive both times before to think that they had won, that things would change and they wouldn't have to fight again. The first time, Hagrid hadn't let himself believe that Voldemort was gone but the second time he let himself believe. He allowed himself to be just as disillusioned into thinking that it was over just like everyone else. Maybe it was because he had thought that by the time something else went wrong in the wizarding world, he would be dead. They most definitely had never thought that it would happen so soon. The deep wounds of the last war had yet to heal and by the looks of things never would.

Hagrid watched as the wind gently blew a few leaves across the rubble and ruffled his long mane of hair. He was frozen by the scene not just because of how terrible it was but because he had seen the same thing, thirty-two years before. Exactly thirty-two years, right down to the day. This time, however, was so much worse.

Maybe it was because Hagrid had known them so long or maybe it was because of her, the Black Lady. Maybe she was sending a message that only Hagrid could understand. A message saying that she wasn't going to make dumb mistakes like Voldemort, she was going to hit where it hurt.

He could see that it had already started; people were calling her She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named or The Black Lady, which seemed more popular. If Harry had tried to make people understand anything it was that fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself. Hagrid's large body was wracked with sobs as he thought of Harry. Harry, who had done so much, to end up like this. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. The Black Lady had done what Voldemort couldn't; she did the worst that she could. She took what they depended on most, the heroes.

Hagrid shook his head and started on what Professor McGonagall sent him here to do. He had to find them.

Ron was by far the easiest because of his mop of flaming red hair that stood out among the wreckage. There was a large gash on his forehead that was seeping blood but other than that, he looked fine.

That was the hardest part of wizard murders for Hagrid; they never looked like they should be dead. He gently closed Ron's brown eyes as he swept the lanky body into his arms. Ron looked so young and that made Hagrid think of the little boy he had met so many years ago. The youngest of six boys who was desperate to find something he was good at, something that made him special. Something that would make him better than his older brothers because they had all found their niche except for him. Hagrid couldn't help but laugh at the thought, Ron had ended up the most famous of them all which was saying something considering how much power the Weasley name came with.

He gently laid Ron's limp body down on the grass of the garden that surrounded the houses. Not wanting to find the body that he knew wouldn't be far from Ron's, Hagrid went farther into the wreckage. He rooted around without much organization, thankful for the full moon's light.

Something golden glinted brightly in the moonlight catching Hagrid's eye. He stepped closer and saw Hermione Granger-Weasley. Her brown hair, that wasn't as bushy as it had been when she first learned that she was a witch, fell in a halo around her head. A look of complete determination was set on her face as her final look. Hagrid thought it oddly fitting; she had always been so determined to prove that no one was better just because of genetics. She basically wrote the Code of Wizardry so that everyone had as equal rights as she could without stepping on millions of toes. Hagrid closed her eyes as he laid her down next to Ron. He had known from the first time he saw the two of them together that they were meant for each other. There had always been something in the way that they looked at each other, the way they argued, all of it said that hovering just under the surface was a connection so tight that you could walk across it.

Turning back to the ruins, Hagrid took a deep breath and tried to keep himself together. He couldn't let himself break because he couldn't let the muggles find them. He stepped back into the partially caved in joint entryway of the Potter and Weasley homes. A shock of ink black hair stood out against the debris. Hagrid couldn't leave him once he knew where he was, it just didn't seem right. His assumption that their bodies wouldn't be far apart had been right, the imprint of Ron's long frame was just a few feet away. As he moved the piece of drywall that was covering him, it hit Hagrid.

Harry Potter, the boy who lived, was dead. His eyes saw the man who saved the wizarding world but his mind only saw the little baby that he had found so many years before, in the same wreckage. Harry's bright green eyes were flat, no longer holding any of the light that they had. His lightning bolt shaped scar blared out of the gray haze like a beacon, trying to give its last bit of hope. Then the hope was snuffed because as Hagrid drew Harry up into his arms, he knew that this wouldn't be like the last time he carried Harry. It was so similar yet Hagrid knew that there wasn't any plan. Harry wasn't going to get up and make everything right again.

He laid Harry down beside Ron and Hermione's bodies. He looked down at the three known by so many as the Golden Trio thanks to the Quibbler and Luna. The sobs came faster and harder, they just looked so small. Harry didn't look the person who saved the entire wizarding world but he never had. None of them did, then again what do you expect when children become your heroes.

Carefully, he moved back through the crumpled mess, moving pieces of house and trying to keep what little bit of himself he still had. He moved slowly up the stairs, taking every step easily so as not to test the remnants of the house with his full weight. At the top of the stairs was a wall that had collapsed. A long band of red hair stuck out from the bottom of the pile and Hagrid found himself praying that it was Ginny. He didn't want to find anyone else, not like that, not because he wanted Ginny to be there. His heart sank further as he moved the pile. Six year old Rose Weasley's eyes wore closed making it look like she really was just sleeping. She had been the perfect blend of her parents, Hermione's intelligence with Ron's easy-going attitude.

Hagrid walked back through after setting Rosie down and came upon the place where Lily's bedroom had been. The four year old was lying in between her mother and Ron and Hermione's son Hugo. Lily, the only girl who was loud and feisty enough to compare to both her mother and namesake. She laid there with her dark brown eyes closed and Hagrid couldn't help but think that she looked like the princess who was under a curse and waiting for true love's first kiss. She loved muggle fairytales and that had always been her favorite, the story of Sleeping Beauty. He set them down beside their parents and was turning back around to go and get Ginny's body when he heard a small voice cry out weakly.

"Help!" He turned and ran towards the sound. He ran back through the house to the part that was nothing more than a pile of sticks. The pale skin of James stood out like a lighthouse among the haze of disaster. His small body was trapped under what looked like a piece of his own house.

"Help, Al! You've got to help Al!" He pleaded and Hagrid realized that the thing pinning James to the ground wasn't house at all, it was his little brother Albus.

Hagrid quickly hefted both boys into his arms as James went into a violent coughing fit. When he finally rested his head on Hagrid's forearm, his ink black hair had shifted so that his forehead was bare. The mark on his forehead made Hagrid stop dead in his tracks as he realized what happened. He laid Albus down and James sat beside the motorbike.

"Wait, right 'ere." He told the seven year old as he walked away.

Hagrid knew that he had to get James somewhere safe but he couldn't leave Ginny and the little kids like that. He quickly gathered them up in his arms and started back towards the clearing.

"Uncle Ron?" He heard James's small voice say. Oh Merlin. He didn't want James to find out like this. He looked up and saw someone sitting up. Hagrid quickened his pace and then stopped in shock.

It was Ron and he was alive! The man pulled his nephew into a hug just as James passed out.

**A/N:** **Hi everyone! For those of you who are subscribers, I'm really sorry that this isn't the newest chapter of Jase Potter and the Phoenix Syndrome. I was going back through my stories on and I realized that for as much as I loved this story, I could do much better with it. So I've embarked on a rewrite! This is the prologue and you can expect the first chapter within the next few days. **

**I would love to thank my wonderful beta, softballpitcher for all her help on this chapter. :) **

**If you like the story enough to favorite or put on alert please review! **

**Thanks!**

**-Prim**


	2. The Second Boy Who Lived

James Sirius Potter-Dursley, who preferred Jase, sat down at the table in his Aunt Jessica and Uncle Dudley's kitchen. His aunt walked in and ruffled his ink black hair affectionately.

"Remind me later and I'll cut your hair." Jase had to admit that his untidy black hair was badly in need of cutting, not that it would help it stay down. It always seemed to be sticking up all over the place and nothing he or his aunt tried seemed to work. His bangs hung into his brown eyes and hid the scar on his forehead. It wasn't that Jase was embarrassed by the scar that was shaped like a lightning bolt; it just raised too many questions. Questions that Jase didn't have answers to.

"Aunt Jessica, don't you think that I should make breakfast like usual?" Jase said tentatively as his aunt cracked an egg littering the pan with bits of shell. She smiled apologetically and handed him the other egg in her hand. For as long as Jase could remember, he liked making breakfast. He couldn't really cook anything other than breakfast food but he was still better on than his aunt who could burn toast.

Because it was a weekday, Jase didn't make a big breakfast like he did on the weekend. He only made sunny side up eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage, toast, orange juice and tea.

Just as Jase was pouring the tea, Uncle Dudley walked in. He nodded at Jase without saying anything. Dudley wasn't very talkative especially to Jase. It wasn't that he was mean or rude to the boy; he just didn't really know his nephew. Neither of them had exactly made an effort to learn much about each other.

Aunt Jessica forced Emma-Claire and Walker to get out of bed and come to breakfast. "We are a family and we will eat our meals like a family!" She said as she followed her twins down the stairs. Jase's cousins were only six months older than him so they all were in the same grade at school together.

Emma-Claire was quite popular with a lot of friends. Her light brown hair was cut just below her shoulder and she almost always wore a headband. She had blue eyes that reminded Jase of the ocean although he couldn't remember ever going there.

Walker could only be considered popular if you became so by beating up everyone who looked at you oddly. He was built like a house with a block shaped head and legs like tree trunks. The kids that Walker beat up were usually too scared to tell their parents so the Dursley's didn't realize what a terror Walker was. The only time he did much more than ignore and avoid Jase was when he remembered that he was just as good a punching bag as anyone else. This didn't happen very often because Aunt Jessica tended to notice if Jase was covered in bruises.

The family muttered their thanks before digging into their breakfast. Jase silently spread raspberry jam on his toast as his aunt told them what they needed to do for the day. It was a moot point because Jase would end up doing most of it anyway because Walker would, of course, be out with his gang all day.

The alarm clock on the counter went off, signaling that it was time for Jessica and Dudley to leave for their jobs. Aunt Jessica was a receptionist at a high profile law firm and Uncle Dudley had his own contracting business. There was a flurry of activity as the adults rushed around the kitchen putting dishes in the sink and grabbing their lunches. Then with a kiss on the cheek, they were gone and the house was silent. As predicted, Walker's gang was at the door a few minutes later.

Shrilly, the phone rang a while later. Jase didn't pay any attention to it because no one ever called for him. Jase heard Emma-Claire squeal into the receiver which meant that one of her friends was back from vacation.

Jase didn't have any friends; Walker had made sure of that, not that anyone had ever really tried. All of the other kids were afraid of Jase because of his accidents like the time he had turned a teacher's hair purple or when he had vanished into thin air once while giving a presentation. He hadn't meant to do anything strange. Strange things just seemed to happen to him like when random people come up to shake his hand in stores and on the street calling him Mr. Potter.

After cleaning up from breakfast, Jase went up to his room which was simple and the way he liked it. The walls were white and the only furniture was a bed, a desk and a wardrobe. On the desk, books from the library were piled dangerously high. Jase found his company in books, not boring books about plants or planets but books about witches and wizards, dragons and knights and all other kinds of wondrous things.

Lying on his forest green comforter, he was reading a book about a farmer's son who discovered a dragon's egg.

Just as the story was starting to pick up, there was a scream. Jase had to stop for a moment and think about whether it was in the story or if it was real. He heard it again and realized that it was Emma-Claire. Taking the stairs two at a time, Jase ran into the kitchen just in time to see a tawny barn owl fly out of the open kitchen window.

"What the-" Jase exclaimed. Emma-Claire sat down hard on a chair, staring at the center of the table. There were two envelopes that looked like they were made of thick cream colored paper. The only difference that he could see was in the names on the front.

He picked up the letter to get a better look, making sure that his eyes weren't playing tricks on hum. They weren't, across the front in a neat, tight script it read,

Mr. J. Potter

Second Bedroom on the Left

12 Applewood Road

Little Whinging, Surrey

He looked up from the first piece of mail that he had ever gotten. Emma-Claire sat, her letter clutched so tightly in her shaking hands that her knuckles were white.

"What do you think it is?" She asked quietly, never taking her eyes off of the envelope.

"Only one way to find out." said Jase as he tore open the envelope.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL_

_of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

_Headmistress: Amelia Woodward_

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Sincerely,_

_Neville Longbottom_

_Deputy Headmaster_

He read it twice not fully believing it but somewhere inside, he knew that this wasn't a joke. In the back of his mind, a thought arose. "I hope I'm not in Slytherin." It shocked Jase because he didn't even know what a slytherin was but his stomach filled with dread when he thought the word.

"An owl?" Emma-Claire said. "How are we supposed to send an owl?"

"Wait," Jase read her letter over her shoulder. It was exactly identical to his except for a note at the bottom. "It says that someone will be by tonight to explain to your parents." She nodded slowly then gasped and looked up at Jase.

"This is why you can do all that weird stuff, like the time with Granny's cat!" Jase flinched at the memory. Great Uncle Vernon had been saying how Jase's parents were a bunch of no good, low life, criminals. Jase had gotten so mad that it had felt like his stomach was boiling and then Caspar, Great Aunt Petunia's cat had blown up like a balloon and sailed out of the open window. Great Aunt Petunia started screeching and Uncle Vernon yelled something about Great Aunt Marge (who refused to come within ten feet of Jase). Then Uncle Vernon had yelled at Jase to get out of his house and to never come back, which would have been perfectly fine with Jase. Of course, Aunt Jessica still forced him to go with the rest of the family every Sunday afternoon.

"I guess so." shrugged Jase still bothered by the sudden arrival of the word slytherin. He couldn't place where he had heard it or why it had such a bad connection. Jase just knew that he didn't want to be associated with the word.

To take their mind off of the letters, Jase suggested that they bake a birthday cake for Uncle Dudley and Aunt Jessica's birthdays which where back to back with hers that day and his following. Together, the two of them had more fun than Jase could ever remember having with his cousin. He actually couldn't remember ever having as much fun.

As they were waiting for the cake to cool so they could decorate it, the cousins sat down at the table.

"Jase, do you think these have anything to do with your parents?" She asked, looking at the letters in the center of the table. This was the first time that she had ever said anything about his past because none of them every talked about it. The few times that Jase had asked his Aunt, she had simply shrugged and told him that she had never met his parents. There had only ever been one time that Jase had been able to pluck up enough courage to ask his uncle about them. Dudley had turned to him and said "Well, your parents- they- they were good people. You look just like your dad but you got your mum's eyes. They didn't deserve what happened to them." He shook him head. That was all he said. It sometimes bothered Jase that he couldn't remember anything before he came to live with the Dursley's when he was seven.

"Yeah, I- I think it does." He said, never taking his brown eyes off of the letters. The cakes were cool enough to decorate, ending the conversation.

While they waited not so patiently for the adults to get home, Jase couldn't help but wonder if he had done things like this for his own parents when they were alive. He didn't even know how they died. It wasn't so much that he didn't want to ask, he just didn't want to know because of what Uncle Dudley said, 'They didn't deserve what happened to them,' There was something about that sentence that made Jase wary. He liked to think of them dying instantly and painlessly together like in a car crash.

That night Uncle Dudley surprised the family by taking them out to dinner. Emma-Claire managed to surprise Jase by not bringing up the letters at all though, she might have been waiting for the same thing he was, a time that felt right.

Thankfully, the time to tell Dudley and Jessica about the Hogwarts letters was decided on by someone else. When the family got home, Emma-Claire and Jase presented their cake which they had decorated in blue and yellow which were Aunt Jessica's favorite colors. The cake was received to rave reviews even though Jase found a few eggshells in his piece.

Just as the Dursley family was sitting down in their usual way to watch the nightly news, their doorbell rang. Jessica looked puzzled and asked the children if they were expecting any company. Jase and Emma-Claire shared a knowing look before following her into the hallway. Walker, not wanting to be left out crowded in with them just as Jessica opened the door.

"Hello, I presume that you're Mrs. Dursley?" A tall man with broad shoulders and wavy brown hair said. Jase had the distinct feeling that he knew the man but couldn't remember ever seeing him.

"Yes,"

"I am Professor Neville Longbottom, the Deputy Headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Letters were delivered today and I believe they arrived at this address, announcing my arrival." He said. Jase's hand automatically went to his pocket where he had stored the letters.

"Kids?" Aunt Jessica turned partially around. Jase didn't say anything but handed her the letters. She quickly skimmed both and nodded at the note on the bottom of Emma-Claire's.

"Please, come in, Professor Longbottom." She led him into the parlor where he sat in Jase's favorite armchair.

"Dudley, dear, this is Professor Longbottom." The large blond man studied the professor for a breath. "We've met before. You were friends with Harry." Dudley said finally, holding out his hand.

"Yes, I'm glad that you remembered." The man with good taste in armchairs said with a nervous laugh and took Uncle Dudley's hand. He scanned the room until his blue eyes finally landed on Jase.

"You must be James. You look just like your father but your eyes," he said quietly, "you've got your mother's eyes."

"You knew my parents?" Jase asked as he scooted closer from his place on the floor.

" Yes," He laughed. "Yes, I knew them quite well." Professor Longbottom said and looked down at his hands solemnly as though the mere thought caused him pain.

"Professor, I don't mean to be rude but why are you here? Dudley and I knew that Jase was a wizard." Jase realize that she hadn't read the names, only scanning the bodies of the letters and assuming that both letters were for Jase.

"Oh, I'm not here about James. I'm here to talk to you about your daughter, Emma." Uncle Dudley turned noticeably paler and Aunt Jessica's jaw dropped to the floor.

"Emma-Claire," Walker said, slightly disgusted.

"My apologizes, I didn't know that you used you're middle name also." Professor Longbottom said making a note but Jase could see that it hadn't been a correction but a statement to get her attention.

Walker looked absolutely repulsed. His brown eyes were filled with horror and focused on the one person that he had never hurt before, his sister.

"What?" She asked innocently.

"You – you - you're a-a-a freak." He spat at her. "You're just like him, just as strange. No one's going to talk to you when they find out that you're- you're like him!" Walker yelled before storming up the stairs.

Emma-Claire's bottom lip twitched violently as her bright blue eyes turned stormy and really looked like the ocean.

Professor Longbottom seemed to be slightly in shock because he sat for a moment in silence. Then he suddenly seemed to snap back into real time.

"I'm so sorry about your brother." He said tenderly and patted Emma-Claire gently on the arm. Jase got the feeling that the professor knew a lot more about tears than laughter. Jase has heard the phrase once in a book and thought that it was the only way to describe the look behind Professor Longbottom's eyes.

After a beat, he launched into a long speech about supplies and such that they would need and how to get places but Jase didn't listen.

"Now, I must be off, a few more muggle families to explain to. Jase, Emma-Claire, I'll see you on the first of September." He nodded before letting himself out. The visit had left Jase with even more questions and fewer answers.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! If you like this enough to favorite or put on alert please review and tell me what you like!**

**-Prim**


	3. Diagon Alley

**A/N: I can't believe how long it's been since I last updated. I'm so sorry about it and so I made this chapter extra long for you. **

**I want to thank my wonderful beta, softballpitcher for all of her help!**

**Enjoy! **

"SHE WILL NOT GO TO THAT BLASTED SCHOOL!" Uncle Vernon roared. His face was so red that it began to turn purple and there was a certain vein in his forehead that throbbed. Beside him, Aunt Petunia pursed her lips so tightly that they turned white.

The sides had clearly been formed between the adults with Great Uncle Vernon and Great Aunt Petunia on one side of the room, and Uncle Dudley and Aunt Jessica on the other. Walker was in the middle and he didn't look very happy. Emma-Claire and Jase sat in the hallway, leaning up against the door to the storage closet under the stairs, not that the wall inhibited them from hearing what the adults were saying.

"Yes, she will. They both will," Uncle Dudley said calmly and quietly. He had never been one to lose his temper and when he did he got really quiet. "Jessica and I are proud of Emma-Claire and Jase who are a witch and a wizard." He didn't say it vindictively or to hurt his parents; Dudley just said what his daughter needed to hear. Against his shoulder, Jase could feel her smile. Jase wanted to burst out laughing that his uncle kept pulling his name into the conversation. Great Uncle Vernon and Great Petunia didn't care about Jase.

"Don't use that word in this house!" Vernon snapped.

Dudley laughed wryly. "What if I had gotten a letter? What if I had gotten a Hogwarts letter, would you have acted like this?"

"Don't say that so loudly, Diddy, the windows are open!" Aunt Petunia spat. It was the first thing that wasn't praise Jase had ever heard her say to her son. "Besides, we raised you better than that."

Dudley made an exasperated noise, "Mother, it isn't something you become! Emma-Claire was born with magic!" That was the last straw for Uncle Vernon who completely blew up.

"DUDLEY VERNON DURSLEY! DO NOT SAY THAT WORD EVER AGAIN IN THIS HOUSE!" Jase and Emma-Claire both flinched; he yelled that loudly.

"I can't believe that you're doing this again. It was bad enough the first time, but your own granddaughter?" Dudley shook his head.

"I told you that taking that boy in would do you no good. His father sure as hell never brought us anything but trouble!"

"No, Dad, we brought that trouble on ourselves because we didn't care about him!" He shook his head again and turned around, his blue eyes falling on Jase and Emma-Claire. "Come on kids. We're leaving."

"No." Walker stood up. "I'm staying with Granny and Granddad." Emma-Claire let out the kind of sound that an injured kitten might make. "I'm not going with you and those freaks," he spat. It hurt Jase more than he thought it would. He had known deep down that when Walker hadn't fled to the hallway with them that he had made his choice, but Jase had wanted to believe that he had wanted to defend his sister. No one said anything as Walker moved in between his grandparents.

They all stayed silent as they rode home; the only noise was an occasional sniff from Emma-Claire's side of the car. Jase thought that the entire Dursley family was in shock. They all knew that Walker wasn't happy about Emma-Claire's magical abilities, but they hadn't thought it was as much so to the point of refusing to live with them.

The ride from Vernon and Petunia's was only a few minutes, but, on that night, it felt like an eternity. The moment they arrived home, Emma-Claire sprinted up to her room and slammed the door so hard it shook the entire house. Aunt Jessica's brown eyes glimmered with tears and Jase knew that she refused to cry in front of him, so he went to his room also.

He thought of what Aunt Jessica had told them this morning. She had thought that this might happen because her brothers were both wizards: Collin, her oldest brother killed by Lord Voldemort in the nineties, and Dennis, her second oldest brother killed by the Black Lady. Jase had only ever seen a few pictures around the house of them but had never thought to ask about them. Now he desperately wished that he could have met them.

Absentmindedly, Jase picked up the book on his nightstand and flipped it open to the bookmark. He tried to read for a while but his thoughts refused to let him concentrate so he kept reading the same line over and over again. It wasn't a particularly philosophical line and he couldn't imagine any way that it would change his life which made it all the more annoying that he couldn't get past the line, "Sometimes, there are no answers."

* * *

It had only been a few days since Professor Longbottom's visit but Emma-Claire had already told all of her friends, who told everyone with ears that she and Jase had both been accepted to Bennet School for Gifted Students, an elite boarding school in Ireland. Emma-Claire knew that if she made up a school for them to go to that her friends would ask questions until the next summer, but they had plenty of time until then. Jase couldn't help but wonder if he had ever had any friends. Had his loneliness been just since his parents died or had he always been alone? Over the past few days, Jase had wondered about his old life and thought of his parents more times than in the last four years combined.

After what felt like forever to Jase, he heard Aunt Jessica and Uncle Dudley go to bed, which meant that he needed to go to sleep. He wasn't sure why, but he always had to hear the satisfying click of their bedroom before he could even think about sleep. The escape of sleep came easy for him, but his dreams weren't as much so. He dreamt first of a house in total chaos with people yelling, and then a green light that chilled him to the bone. Then, it would change in a whirlwind to him on a large, flying motorbike, flying over thousands of tiny balls of light that he realized was a town. That was the bad part; it wasn't the part that haunted him during the daylight hours. No, the part of the dreams that haunted him was the feeling of complete and utter hopelessness. The feeling that he had lost everything that mattered but the worst was the feeling that he had absolutely no idea who he was, where he had come from, or where he was going.

Jase suddenly awoke as his door creaked open. He held his breath as the green light hung in his memory. The little moonlight that streamed through his window illuminated the figure that stood in his doorway. He recognized Emma-Claire as she sat down on the edge of his bed, her face barely visible in the darkness.

"What if they made a mistake?" she blurted out.

"What are you talking about?" Jase rubbed his eyes, wondering if she had gone off the deep end.

"What if Professor Longbottom made a mistake and I'm not a witch?"

"Then you're screwed because you're going to have to think of a pretty elaborate lie about why you left the gifted kids school." He smirked until Emma-Claire's fist connected with his leg.

He could already feel a bruise forming where she had punched him. "I'm serious, Jase!" she whispered harshly.

"Relax. They didn't make a mistake. I promise." He gave her a smile that he hoped was reassuring, although he wasn't exactly sure that she could see him in the dark room. "Em?"

"Yeah?" she answered as she played with a loose string off of his comforter.

"Is this about Walker?"

"No," she replied a little too quickly. "Yes," she said in a voice that Jase could barely hear before she looked up at him. "Maybe?"

"It'll be okay. He'll come around eventually. This is just too much for him to process. I mean you're his twin sister and he probably just feels like he's losing you to a world that he doesn't know anything about and isn't a part of. That would be hard for any one," he said as he rubbed his throbbing leg.

"Do you really think so?" Emma-Claire asked, the hope practically dripping off of her voice so Jase did what any good cousin would do.

He lied. "Of course," he said as she wrapped her arms around his slight frame. With a smile, Emma-Claire climbed off his bed and crossed to the other side of the room.

"You know, you really should be asleep," she said in the bossy voice that Jase was much more used to.

Then, for the first time in a long time, Jase laid down and slept dreamlessly.

* * *

As promised, Aunt Jessica took Jase and Emma-Claire to buy their school supplies the next day. To pass the time before they left, Jase read his list of required items again. The list of books was by far what amazed him the most, mainly because none of them sounded thin by any means.

_The Standard Book of Spells by Miranda Goshawk_

_A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot_

_Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling_

_A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch_

_1000 Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore_

_Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger_

_Defensive Knowledge by Terry Boot _

_Hogwarts: A History Revised by Evelyn Corie_

The titles sounded like something out of one of the books that Jase read but he slowly realized that his life was becoming something out of one of the books he read.

As the trio walked down the crowded London street, Jase took in all the sights that he could, desperately searching for the place where he could buy the things on the list: the books, or a wand, or a cauldron. But none of the shops on this street looked anything like those.

"There it is!" Aunt Jessica said in a hushed whisper of amazement. Jase realized that she had been wondering the entire time if it was real, or if she was just dreaming it all up in a desperate attempt to reach the brothers that she had known so little about and lost so soon.

The children followed her gaze to a dingy, old pub that no one was paying any attention to as they walk past. A small sign hung above the door, a black cauldron with gold letters that showed signs of once having been shiny, that read _The Leaky Cauldron_. A name jumped into Jase's head when he read the sign: Hannah. He didn't have any idea who Hannah was, or why he associated her name with this place, but he was too excited as they walked through the door to care.

The pub was full of people dressed in all sorts of clothes. One woman had on a set of fuchsia robes and was talking to a woman wearing jeans and a black t-shirt that advertised the "Weird Sisters!" Another couple each wore floor-length black robes while they talked to an elderly gentleman who wore plaid pants, canvas trainers, and a Hawaiian print shirt. Jase noticed that the only people dressed normally were Aunt Jessica's age or younger, while anyone older seemed to either wear robes or multiple patterns together.

They fought their way to the bar and Aunt Jessica asked the tired man behind the bar to let them on to Diagon Alley. He openly stared at Jase as if he was an animal on display at the zoo, while he ignored Aunt Jessica.

"Are-are you James Poter?" he stammered and it seemed like the rest of the pub immediately grew silent.

"Um, yeah." Jase said unused to people using his real last name. It was technically hyphenated Potter-Dursley but he hardly ever used Potter.

"Blimey," the man breathed. "We all thought they had lied and that you was dead," he chuckled darkly. Jase noticed the people seemed to move closer.

"Well, I guess you were wrong," he shrugged uncomfortably. The entire pub erupted in laughter and cheers. It seemed like everyone wanted to shake his hand or say something to him but Jase didn't hear any of it. Why did all these people want to talk to him?

He was just a normal kid from Little Whinging who had never done anything extraordinary. Or was he something more? How was he to know when he couldn't remember the majority of his life or his parents?

The only thing he heard was from the woman in the "Weird Sisters!" t-shirt. "You dad was a good man. Saved my life a few times." The mention of his father shocked Jase out of a haze that fogged his vision. He looked up to ask the woman about the mystery that was his father, but she was gone, making him wonder if she had been there at all.

Finally, the excitement seemed to die down and the barman led them into a small brick room with no windows and nothing but two metal garbage cans.

"What just happened?" Emma-Claire asked once the door behind them was shut. Both eleven year olds looked up at Jessica who looked quite bewildered.

"I have no idea," she shook her head.

The barman ignored them and took a wooden stick out of his pocket and tapped a brick. Suddenly, the brick started moving and Emma-Claire gave a small shriek. A doorway formed that led out on to the best street that Jase had ever seen. It was absolutely fantastic. The street was just as packed as the London street had been, but these people were so much more wonderful.

There were even more people dressed in brightly colored robes, but the amount of people wearing normal clothes greatly increased. Jase wished that he had a dozen sets of eyes so that he could take in everything.

Jessica Dursley, who was completely out of her element, set her face and started past the shops that were full of things she had never seen before, and didn't understand.

"Mum, where are we going?" Emma-Claire asked without tearing her eyes away from the marvels on the street.

"To Gringotts, the wizard bank." She pointed to a large white marble building that loomed menacingly over the street, as she dodged a creepy man who was trying to sell her something that looked vaguely like a giant rabbit's foot. Jase noticed that his aunt was tightly clutching the note Professor Longbottom had given her in one hand and a small brass key in the other.

A flash of pity swept through Jase as he realized the amount of people that lived their entire lives and never saw any of this. The bank was even more impressive on the inside with its impossibly tall vaulted ceilings composed entirely of marble. Dozens of curious creatures were behind desks and milling around carrying large scrolls. They were very short with long noses and pointed ears. They all seemed to have the exact same unpleasant expression.

Aunt Jessica walked up to a particularly ancient one who wasn't doing much of anything. The one side of his large mouth rose up in a grimace-like smile.

"My name is Jessica Dursley. I need to exchange normal money for wizard money and also," she laid the key down on the desk, "Mr. Potter would like to withdraw some money from his family's vault." The ancient creature's large eyes widened at the small key. He looked at Jase and his eyes looked like they might pop out of their sockets. His reaction reminded Jase of what happened a few moments before in the pub, and he took a deep breath silently praying that the man wouldn't draw attention to the boy in front of him.

"Very well, this way please." He slowly climbed down off of his pedestal. Jase, who had always been small for his age, was delighted to find that he was a few inches taller than the man. He walked to the end of the row of desks and crooked a long finger at a much younger looking man.

"Take, Mr. Potter to his vault." He grinned at the shock on the younger creature's face. They started to walk toward the large set of double doors that Jase assumed led to an elevator. Emma-Claire grabbed Jase's arm just as the door in front of him almost hit him in the face. A tall man with a long, low ponytail of red hair and a fang earring stepped out of the door, surrounded by an entourage of the strange little creatures. He still managed to look very official in his black suit and Jase noticed the long, ragged scars that crossed his face and neck.

"Hello, Mr. Weasley!" the man chirped.

As Jase looked at the man, feeling he recognized him. There was something eerily familiar about the man, especially his long nose that was splattered with freckles. As he walked past, the man nodded to them.

Then, without missing a beat after the man had passed, the little man set off again. He led them through one of the double doors into a cavernous room.

The man crawled into a small cart, much like the ones Jase had once seen in a program about coal mining. Nervously, Aunt Jessica climbed in the cart last.

"Hold on," he said. Aunt Jessica's fingers clamped down on the sides of the cart so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

"Are you alright?" Emma-Claire barely managed to get the question out before the cart lurched forward. Wind blew against Jase's face as they sped down the track. He supposed that it felt like being on a rollercoaster, but there was something about it that felt more like flying and Jase loved it. His stomach was tied in knots, but he barely felt it. Adrenaline pumped through his body at break-neck speed and he felt completely and utterly free. He looked over at his cousin and Aunt who were complete opposites at the moment; Emma-Claire's face was flushed with excitement while Aunt Jessica was as white as a bed sheet.

The cart went around a particularly dangerous bend, making the cart slide up on to two wheels. With a whoop of excitement as his stomach did a flip, Jase looked down and saw caverns that seemed endless.

Abruptly, the cart came to a screeching halt so violently that Jase was almost thrown out of his seat.

Cursing loudly, Aunt Jessica launched out of the cart and on to the solid ground, quickly sitting down and putting her head between her knees. Emma-Claire gasped and Jase had to suppress another fit of giggles at her language. In all of the years he had lived with his Aunt, she never swore and heavily reprimanded Uncle Dudley when he did. Both children sobered when they caught sight of the stern little man's expression.

"Key, Madame." He held out his long fingered hand to the woman still crouching on the stone floor. Without moving out of her post, Jessica lifted her arm and dropped the small antiquated brass key in his hand.

He slide the key into a hole in the center of the heavy looking door and drew one finger across it, before turning the key which caused what sounded like a thousand locks clicking open.

"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they would be sucked in," he smiled cruelly. Goblins, so they what they were. Somehow the name fit them, although Jase had always though of goblins as, well, what they exactly were, except for perhaps a bit more evil looking.

Jase was about to ask how often they checked for people when, suddenly, his jaw fell to the floor. The vault was twice the size of his bedroom at the Dursley's and filled with coins of all shapes and sizes. "All of this belonged to my parents?" Jase asked as he picked up a fierce looking sword and turned it over in his hand. Emma-Claire gave him a pointed look that made him put it down.

"It is the combined fortunes of the Potter family and the Most Noble House of Black," the goblin said, eyeing the sword with reverence that suggested to Jase that it was very valuable.

"The Most Noble House of Black?" Emma-Claire asked. "It sounds like they were trying to impress someone." For a moment Jase thought that the goblin laughed, but it was gone as quickly as it had come.

"I'll wait in the cart for you and I'll exchange your muggle money for real money when we get back to the surface."

"Don't worry about it," Jase told the goblin automatically.

"What are you talking about?" Emma-Claire huffed.

"Jase, honey?" Aunt Jessica said from the small stool by the door that she was perched on, still looking quite peaked.

"You and Uncle Dudley buy clothes and stuff for me so use this money to buy Emma-Claire's school stuff." He shrugged as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"No, Jase. This is your money and it's your uncle and I's job to give you clothes and stuff." She smiled at him.

"I didn't ask you to adopt me, just to give me a room," Jase reasoned. Jessica bit her lip and frowned, looking to the little goblin for advice.

"If I may, Madame, if you legally adopted Mr. Potter, then this is yours until he turns seventeen."

"Don't you mean eighteen?" Emma-Claire sneered. Jase rolled his eyes at her. His cousin was nothing, if not a know-it-all.

"No, in the muggle world the legal age is eighteen but it is seventeen in our world," he smiled.

"Muggle? What's a muggle?" Emma-Claire said the word as if it left a bad taste in her mouth.

"Non-magic people," Jase said as he looked into a large marble basin that he had pulled out of a large cabinet. He felt a strange pulling sensation behind his belly button before he looked up at his aunt who looked shocked. "What?"

"Jase, how do you know that?"

"I...uh...must have heard it earlier today," he said, wondering how he knew it. Jase wasn't sure which he preferred, not being able to remember anything about his past and this world or having these random bursts of information.

Jessica Dursley squinted at her adopted son, then shook her head and looked at the goblin again. "What do you think?"

He shrugged and looked up at her. "You obviously aren't going to use it unjustly. You've known about this vault for years and never used any of it. Use pure wizard money for your daughter's education."

Pure wizard money; something about that bothered Jase. He wasn't sure why because in a way, it made sense. If Emma-Claire was a witch, why make her use secondhand money? No, that didn't sound right either. Saying it like that made it sound like muggles were lesser than wizards, or dirty in someway.

Jase's aunt pursed her lips, and then in a tone that revealed her uncertainly asked, "what will we need?"

The goblin smiled delightedly and quickly explained that the golden coins were Galleons, the silver ones were Sickles, and the small bronze ones were Knuts.

"Remember, 29 Knuts to a Sickle and 17 Sickles to a Galleon," the stout goblin told them as he handed Aunt Jessica two identical leather coin purses filled with the alien coins.

On their way back to the surface, Aunt Jessica kept her eyes closed and quite a few times made the motion of crossing herself, which Jase found peculiar considering that Dursley's weren't religious. It took her a moment to regain her balance once they were out of the cart, but even as they stepped out into the bright mid-morning sun, she looked peaked.

Closely studying a crudely drawn map of the street, Jessica Dursley planned their attack on the shops like a seasoned war general might. Jase studied the shops around him and realized why 'pure wizarding money' made sense. The crisp dollar bills of muggle money seemed extremely drab and mundane in this fabulous new world full of magic and other wondrous things.

**A/N: I hoped you liked it! Please review even if it's just a simple I liked it. It can make my day. :) **

**Thanks for reading! Go Steelers! **

**-Prim**


	4. Mr FinchFetchley

Jase's eyes hungrily ran over everything they possibly could because he didn't want to miss a thing. The severe witch known as Madame Malkin sold them their black robes and uniforms. An odd wizard with one green eye and one brown eye sold them each a black cauldron. A tall, willowy witch sold them each telescopes and a witch with dreadlocks and bad teeth sold them their potion making supplies.

At the crowded bookstore, Flourish and Blotts, they bought the books that Jase had been so curious about. He had been right when he thought that none of them were thin. He couldn't hold all of his books at the same time. The tips of his fingers itched to crack the crisp new bindings and devour the words. He had to resist the urge to buy a book called 'Perfect Potter' by Rita Skeeter. Jase wasn't sure that he even wanted to know about his family if he couldn't meet them. Why make himself wish even more for something that he could never have? His parents were dead and they weren't going to come back, so why bother trying to know them?

As he struggled to carry his heavy cauldron which contained all of his other school supplies, he wasn't paying much attention and accidentally ran straight into a tall witch in a bright orange dress that he was pretty sure was called a sari.

"I'm so sorry!" Jase gasped.

"It's alright darling." The lady smiled which made her look even pretty than before. She had a kind face with warm brown eyes and long, black hair that fell down her back in a curtain. "Here, let me put a lightening charm on that for you." She withdrew a wand from a fold in her dress and pointed it at his cauldron. Instantly, it felt lighter and Jase sighed with relief.

"Thank you!" He chirped as Emma-Claire bumped into him.

"Whoa!" Emma-Claire exclaimed as her arm lifted in the air. "Thanks." She told the woman as she was tucking her wand into the fold of her sari.

"Not a problem at all." She smiled at them before turning and disappearing into the crowd. Jase got the feeling that it hadn't been chance that he had bumped into the lady but he didn't concern himself with it because Aunt Jessica was suddenly ushering them forward again, eager to get done with their shopping and to get home.

Although his cauldron didn't feel as laden, Jase's thoughts were still packed with thoughts of his past. Aunt Jessica always said that they had only seen Jase a few times before he came to live with them. Why was that? She had told Professor Longbottom that they had known Jase was a wizard. Did that mean that they had always known or had someone told them after his parents were dead?

Jase ran into his aunt who had suddenly stopped in front of a shop that had blue paint on the front that was slightly chipped. "My father bought Collin and Dennis owls when they went to Hogwarts." Aunt Jessica said to no one in particular. Tears of nostalgia twinkled in her brown eyes only for a moment before she blinked them away.

"What would you want an owl for?" Emma-Claire whispered harshly.

"Post, wizards use them for post." Jase said in a flash of knowledge that he didn't understand. Aunt Jessica walked in the dimly light shop known as Eeylops Owl Emporium. Covering the walls were hundreds of cages containing every color and size of owl imaginable.

"You can each pick out an owl as a congratulations gift from Dudley and me for getting into Hogwarts." She smiled as a tawny owl nipped playfully at her fingers.

Jase walked around the store looking in every cage, waiting to find an owl that stood out as _his. _He looked at a barn owl, a striking black owl, a stately owl and many others but none of them looked like his.

Suddenly, Jase heard a small high-pitched hoot and the smallest snowy owl he had ever seen fell into his hands. In a state of mild shock, Jase froze and watched the tiny bird right itself in his hands. After ruffling her white feathers, the owl looked up at Jase with eyes the color of molten gold. She ticked her head to the side and let out a small hoot that sounded like a toy's squeak rather than an actual owl noise.

"Hello," Jase chuckled as the small owl bounced up his arm before taking off lightly to land on the top of his head.

"Jase? Are you ready?" Aunt Jessica called. Tentatively, he took a step towards the counter where his aunt and cousin were waiting with a man with large luminescent eyes. The man chuckled lightly at Jase.

"I always said that she would need someone special to keep up with her." He patted the owl on the head causing her to make a sound like a purr. "She's a runt but she'll do fine."

The owl in the cage Emma-Claire was holding rattled against the bars as Jase's owl hopped down his arm for a closer look at the other creature. Jase, although dismayed by the sudden lack of contact between him and his new pet, he was thankful for the second barrier between her and Emma-Claire's owl.

As Aunt Jessica handed the man some of the coins out of the leather bags, Jase looked down at the list and realized that they had purchased everything on the list except for the thing he had been most excited for. A wand.

The trio walked into a small shop farther down the street and Jase felt like every nerve in his body was ready to burst from excitement. Once they were in the shop, Jase realized that it actually was quite a large space but there were wands everywhere. They covered the walls in shelving units, they were randomly in boxes on the floor, and were in precarious stacks that also reached the high ceiling. There wasn't much else in the store except for a counter at the front with a door behind it. Although the shop smelled much more pleasant that the Apothecary, it still had a musty, old wood smell that tickled at Jase's nose as he weaved in and out of the stacks of boxes.

The door behind the counter opened, revealing a tall, confident looking man with wavy black hair. "Hello, I'm Justin Finch-Fetchley, owner of Ollivander's." He held out his large hand to each of them in turn. His brown eyes scrutinized Jase and Emma-Claire in a way that made Jase want to squirm. He reached under the small counter and retrieved two identical boxes, withdrawing from each a tape measure, an electric blue quill and a piece of parchment. Mr. Finch-Fetchley flicked both of the tape measures and they sprung to life, taking every possible measurement. When they had finally measured everything from the length of Jase's arm to the distance between his eyebrows, they rolled back up and Mr. Finch-Fetchley walked around the shop pulling different boxes of all sizes and sending them back to the counter with a flick of his wand.

"Why don't we start with the young lady?" He smiled charmingly. Emma-Claire stepping tentatively forward to take the slightly crooked wand in Mr. Finch-Fetchley's outstretched hand. "This is an ash wand, 12 inches with a unicorn tail hair."

She flicked it lightly and a moth that had been fluttering past, exploded. Emma-Claire yelped and threw the wand back on the counter. She took the next wand he handed her and waved it slightly as he explained that it was a 9 inch wand of aspen wood with a manticore stinger core. This time nothing happened. They tried wand after wand, ash wood, birch wood, rosewood, and willow wood, fir with elf hair, unicorn hair, phoenix feather, and veela hair. Wand after wand after wand until Jase was wondering if Emma-Claire hadn't been right and Hogwarts had made a mistake.

As Mr. Finch-Fetchley took yet another trip into the rows of shelves that held the boxes of wands, he called over his shoulder. "Remember, Miss Dursley, the wand chooses the witch! Your wand will literally be an extension of yourself so every wand is unique. We just have to find one as unique as you." He gave her another charming smile and handed her a perfectly straight wand. "Try this one; it's a 10 inch unicorn tail wand." He said.

Emma-Claire took a deep breath before she waved the wand. Her eyes were closed so she missed the jet of purple light that shot from the tip of her wand.

"Wonderful!" Mr. Finch-Fetchley cheered as Emma-Claire opened her eyes before his look turned quizzical. "It's curious that you should have this wand. It is made of rowan wood. Actually, it's the only wand that I know of made of rowan wood."

"Doesn't rowan usually ward off magic?" Aunt Jessica said almost under her breath.

"Exactly why it's the only one I've ever made. It's very difficult to work with," He said as he handed Emma-Claire the rectangular box. The silence hung heave in the air for a moment before the man turned to Jase.

"So, James Potter, I wondered when I would be seeing you again." He said, turning extra charm on in his smile. How did everyone seem to know him? "I went to school with your parents, they were fine people. Shame what happened to them." He said, his brown eyes gliding up Jase's face to the scar on his forehead. "I think that I have just the wand for you." He said and turned back through the door. Jase didn't know how these people knew him but he got the distinct feeling that it was connected to his parents, their deaths and the scar on his forehead.

Mr. Finch-Fetchley returned with a long, black box in his hands. He opened it carefully, revealing a beautiful wand resting on a bed of crushed blue velvet. Jase took it and a light, bubbly feeling filled him. The handle seemed molded to his hand and he suddenly understood what Mr. Finch-Fetchley had meant about the wand being an extension of your arm. Feeling like he had found the missing piece of his arm, Jase flicked his wrist slightly and watched as little green and silver sparks erupted from the tip.

"What is it?" asked Jase.

"11 inch wand of Alder with a very special dragon heartstring core."

"What's so special about it?" Emma-Claire asked, her usually normal tone returning.

"This particular dragon was a Hungarian Horntail. The same that Jase's father battled in the Triwizard Tournament." Mr. Finch-Fetchley said, his voice dripping with awe. He had no idea what half of those things were but as he looked down at the wand in his hand, it suddenly was so much more than just a wand. It was a link to the mystery that everyone seemed to know the answer to, the mystery of Jase's parents.

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed it! My RL has finally calmed down a bit so I should be able to update a bit more regularly. **

**I would never hold a chapter for a certain number of reviews but the amount of reviews I get, definitely makes me want to write more. **

**Anyways, in the next chapter, we're going to Hogwarts!**


	5. The Hogwarts Express

**A/N: Hi guys! I know it has been a long time since I've updated but I was on hiatus from fanfiction while I was working on original stuff but that's all in the past because I'm back! I did change my username to Stolen Sunshine but I'm still the same old Prim. **

**I want to thank my fabulous beta, Destiny! Hope you guys like this chapter! **

Jase woke up at four o'clock in the morning on September first without an alarm clock, which in the Dursley house was unheard of. He couldn't even imagine going back to sleep even though he hadn't gotten to bed until late the night before. When he sat up, Persephone flew down from her perch on his dresser and curled up in his lap. It amazed him at how quickly she could fall asleep.

Absentmindedly, Jase stroked her head and she made the purring sound that he had based her name off of. Emma-Claire had told him that it was dumb but he liked it better than Niles which was her owl's name. The back of his hand throbbed at the mere thought of the bloody bird that had successfully taken a chunk out of his hand the day before.

But none of that mattered because today was the day that everything was going to change. Today was the day he was going to go to Hogwarts. He was going to stop being the weird accident prone freak and just be Jase. Maybe he would even find out who he used to be or who his parents were. To pass some time, Jase cracked back open the book that had quickly become his favorite, Hogwarts: A History. He had already read it twice but the intricacies of the architecture and secrets of the castle that he read about amazed him. It sounded like something out of one of the books that he read but it was so much better because it was real. Jase flipped to the chapter titled, 'The Four Houses'. He read the descriptions of each house for what had to be the hundredth time, searching for himself for any of the traits.

"What do you think, Persephone?" She blinked her large golden eyes at him and gave him a look that clearly said she just wanted to sleep. In the time since the trip to Diagon Alley, Jase had taken to talking Persephone. "Maybe I'm not supposed to be in any of the houses. I'm not cunning or clever. I'm not at all that brave and I'm a terrible finder. What if I'm just not sorted at all?" His chest grew tighter and tighter as he spoke. Persephone rolled her eyes at him and flew into her open cage.

In vain, Jase searched the book for any mention of how they were to be sorted and an hour later he came away with just a few lines.

"In the beginning of Hogwarts, the students all had an interview with

the founders and then they sorted the students personally. The four

founders created a test that stands today as the way for their voices

to still be heard in the sorting of all students that are to roam their

hallowed halls."

A test. He had to take a test. Great, he was good at taking tests when he knew what to study but how can you study when you haven't the foggiest idea of what was it was going to be on? Jase sat back in shock; this was the first time that he could ever remember a book letting him down. For so many years they had been his refuge, the place he went too when he got too confused or when he needed to forget about the bruises that Walker gave him. He searched the other textbooks, not really expecting to find anything but unable to give up. He found one sentence in his History of Magic textbook that simply stated that the Founders had created the method of sorting and that they had put certain measures in to make sure that it would not be able to be out-dated. That was just fantastic, that meant that there were kids whose entire family were wizards and had known about the test since they were born which gave them an edge over kids like him and Emma-Claire.

Jase was practically fuming as he walked down the stairs to make breakfast for the last time in what would be a long time. Uncle Dudley was already sitting at the table, a cup of coffee in hand as he absentmindedly flipped through a large black photo album.

"Morning," Jase said flatly. His uncle grunted something resembling a response as he shut the book. Jase didn't even try to hide his puzzlement, he had never seen his uncle even open a book before or give a second glance to any of the hundreds of pictures that were hanging up around the house. Jase had caught a glimpse of one of the pictures before the book had been shut, a boy with bright red hair sitting on a couch gazing across the room at a plain girl with bushy hair and her nose stuck in a book. A spark of remembrance arose in Jase but was squashed at the slam of the book.

Warm smells of breakfast filled the house as Jase made pancakes. He frowned as he realized that this would be the last in a long time that he would make breakfast. Jase stopped dead in his tracks as he remembered that normal people didn't eat pancakes and so these would probably be the last pancakes he ate until Christmas break. Last year when the Dursley family had traveled to America for vacation, they had tried the fluffy American breakfast food and fell in love with them. They ate them every Tuesday morning because Aunt Jessica always swore that tuesdays were worse than mondays.

Knowing that it would be one of the things he missed the most, Jase savoured the average task. He set the table, being careful not to disturb Uncle Dudley who was watching Jase in a thoughtful manner. The rest of the morning went by normally other than Jase's inability to sit still because of his nerves. He unpacked and repacked his trunk twice and was starting to repeat the process for a third time when Aunt Jessica's clear voice drifted up the stairs. "Do you want to get ready? We should leave soon."

"So all that's left is for me to somehow figure out how to move the trunk that is bigger than me down the stairs," Jase said with a hopeful look to Persephone. She responded by gliding gracefully down on to the top of the trunk. "Oh no, you don't!" Jase tried to shoo her off. "There are no free rides here!"

Persephone rolled her large yellow eyes and hopped up his arm to perch on top of his head. "Great, that's such an improvement," Jase huffed.

"Are you really arguing with an owl?" Emma-Claire scolded from the doorway.

"What? She started it!" Jase defended as his cousin twirled with a flare and stalked down the hall. "What did I do?" he asked Persephone who leaned over to look at him upside down. She gave a quick group of hoots that sounded almost like laughter. Jase shook his head and tried to push the trunk to no avail. An owl was laughing at him. He was sure that this was the lowest point of his life.

Thankfully, Uncle Dudley got impatient and picked Jase's trunk up with ease and carried it down the stairs and into the car. As he followed his uncle down the stairs he caught a glimpse of the clock and noticed that as usual, they were running late. The Dursleys were nothing if not fashionably late to almost everything. When they got to Kings Cross Station after what felt like a millennia to Jase, they threw their luggage onto a trolley and weaved through the crowd.

The entire family stopped dead in front of the brick wall that was between platforms 9 and 10. "I guess I should go first," Aunt Jessica said trying to hide the quiver in her voice as she sighed dramatically. Uncle Dudley kissed her temple before lightly pushing her forward. She took a deep breath and set her jaw before walking pointedly towards the brick wall, if anyone was looking on they would have thought she was mad, and then she disappeared, if Jase had blinked he would have completely missed it.

Emma-Claire looked at her cousin with wide eyes that clearly said she was not ready for this. So Jase did what any good cousin would do and set himself up in front of the barrier. As he started pushing his trolley towards it, he was hit by a memory.

"_Come on, we're going to be late!" A tall red headed man was holding his hand and leading him towards the very same brick wall. Jase felt himself flinch just as he should have hit the wall but he didn't, instead they kept right on walking out onto a platform. He opened his eyes and saw a completely normal train platform but this was covered with people who all had something about them that just screamed that they were different. _

_"Little man!" Someone yelled as he was tackled to the ground in a bear hug. He could hear himself laughing but it was as if it was on a recording. _

_"Stop!" He gasped for breath. "Stop it!" He could see now that the boy was clearly older than him most likely the one they were sending off to school. He has deep brown eyes and dark brown hair that almost seemed to blink a bright color every minute or so._

_"Alright, boys. That's enough." A man with ink black hair much like Jase's, pulled the older boy up and dusted him off. His bright green eyes looked so familiar to Jase but he couldn't place where he had seen the man before but he most definetly had. Actually, as Jase looked around at the mass of people around them (most of whom had ginger hair), he had the distinct feeling that he should know them but as panic slowly filled him, he realized that he didn't know any of them at all. _

"Jase!" Emma-Claire and Uncle Dudley burst out of the brick wall and straight into him sending them all to the ground. "What did you do that for?" She huffed before stalking away towards her mother who was talking to an animated woman with long wavy blonde hair. Uncle Dudley watched his adopted son as he picked himself up off of the ground.

"Sorry," Jase said quietly as he tried to calm Persephone down.

"It's alright," He said before looking around amazed. "It's just as I've always heard them talk about it." He continued under his breath. Jase looked up at his uncle but was they were both quickly swept towards the train by Aunt Jessica.

The Dursley family had never been big on good-byes and September first was no exception. So with a quick kiss from Aunt Jessica and a reminder to write home, Jase and Emma-Claire were sitting in their own compartment on the train. They had struggled to get their luggage on the high racks before a haughty redheaded girl with freckles and horn-rimmed glasses came by and with a flick of her wand set both of the trucks on the railing. Jase couldn't wait until he would be able to do things like that on his own.

The city quickly flew past and they soon were in the country racing towards Hogwarts. As he watched out the large window, Jase talked aimlessly to Emma-Claire although he got the distinct feeling that she was ignoring him because every once in a while she would let out a huff of air which was a sure fire way to tell that she wasn't very happy. But Jase wasn't very concerned about it because they had been alone for almost a half an hour and she still hadn't yelled at him which meant that it was mostly likely not his fault although one could never be entirely sure when it came to Emma-Claire.

The train had seemed to slow a bit since they had reached the countryside and Jase was amazed by the farm animals that they passed. For the first time he was seeing sheep and pigs and cows and real horses. Aunt Jessica and Uncle Dudley had never been the type of people to take the children to farms or fairs of that sort because they just didn't really like farm animals but he thought that they were absolutely superb.

"Can I sit here?" A tall boy asked as he slid open the compartment door. The boy was quite gangly and seemed to be all arms and legs. His dish water blonde hair hung down past the top of his ears and fell slightly into his brown eyes.

"Sure," Jase motioned to the seat beside him before he noticed the death glare that Emma-Claire was sending him. He tried to give what he thought was an apologetic look but apparently wasn't good enough for her.

"I'm Ben Thatcher, by the way." He held out his hand. The other boy took it and shook it firmly.

"Jase, Jase Dursley and this is Emma-Cla-"

"Emma, just Emma Dursley." His cousin cut him off.

"O-kay," Jase sighed. He didn't want to make her any madder than she already was. "Are you a first year too?"

Ben nodded, "Yeah, are you twins?" His large brown eyes flicked between them and Jase had to fight back a laugh at the disgusted look on Emma's face.

"No," she said sharply before stalking out of the compartment and slamming the door behind her so hard that Jase was sure the glass shook. Both boys stared after her for a moment, frozen.

"What did I do?" Ben raised his eyebrows, making his eyes look even larger.

"Don't worry much about it, mate, I've lived with her for five years and I still don't understand her at all. Almost everything I do is wrong in her mind." With a sigh, Jase looked at the other boy.

"So if she isn't your twin, what is she?"

"My cousin, I live with my Aunt and Uncle." Jase looked out the window, it wasn't that he didn't want Ben to know that his parents were dead, it was just more that he didn't want to admit how little he knew about them. As Jase thought about it, he realized that he didn't even know their names, on the rare occasions that Uncle Dudley and Aunt Jessica talked about them it was always just 'your parents' or 'your mother and father'. Why had he never thought of them before? Why hadn't he asked more questions? Didn't children usually want to know about their parents? Shouldn't he have missed them? Maybe it was because he couldn't really remember anything about them other than small things like a flash of long red hair or a pair of round glasses that always seemed broken. After all, Aunt Jessica and Uncle Dudley were the only parents that he had ever known or at least the closest thing.

"No, Melisent!" A flash of grey shot across the compartment as a girl with curly strawberry blonde hair flung the door open the rest of the way. The cat flung herself into Jase's unsuspecting lap and in record time made herself at home.

"I'm so sorry!" The girl blushed deeply as she attempted to pull the extremely furry grey kitten off him. "I expect that Wrackspurts are to blame, she usually isn't like this at all."

"Wrackspurts?" Ben frowned.

"Yes, they're tiny creatures that float in through your ears and make your brain go all fuzzylike." Nodding, she finally pulled the kitten into her arms. "I'm Cassie, by the way, Cassie Scamander."

"Jase Dursley, and he's Ben Thatcher."

"Are you both first years?" Cassie sat down beside Jase as the boys nodded. "I expect that I'll be sorted into Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff because those were my parent's houses although my brothers are both Gryffindors so I suppose we can never really know can we?"

Jase felt his heart sink. Why did she have to bring up the one topic he had been trying his very best to avoid.

"Yeah, I guess." Ben said, unsurely. "My entire family has been in Gryffindor for nine generations so if I'm sorted anywhere else, my mother will not be happy," He added, paling considerably.

"What about you?" She looked pointedly at him. He had been hoping that they would somehow forget that he was there or get caught up in a conversation about the houses or something but things really just didn't seem to be going his way today.

"Oh, well, I suppose I would be fine with any house," He said as his stomach twisted in a knot.

'_All students must change into their school robes at this time if they have not already done so. We will be arriving at Hogsmeade Station in a few minutes.' _A voice came through an invisible speaker and the shades on the windows automatically shut themselves.

"That's my cue, I suppose. Well, I expect that we'll be seeing each other soon enough. Best of luck!" Cassie chirped as she shut the compartment door behind her.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked it! Please leave a review and tell me what you think! **


	6. Try to Remember

"Firs' years! Firs' years, this way!" A gruff voice boomed over the crowd. Jase and Ben struggled through the people, who all seemed to be going the other way, toward the voice. They finally broke out of the jumble and saw, what Jase was sure, was the largest man he had ever seen. He had to be at least 11 feet tall and was the size of a house. His long, tangled hair was black and he had a large, bushy beard that covered most of his face. His huge, ugly coat was made of moleskin and was covered in patches of all kinds of fabric from purple polka dots to pink zebra stripe.

"Alright, follow me!" The man walked closer to the lake and the boats gently floating in the water. Jase and Ben quickly claimed a boat for themselves. They soon were joined by Emma-Claire, who looked like she was about to be sick and a girl with white blonde hair and cool blue eyes. She was very petite with fine features.

"So," she said in a bossy sounding voice "What houses do you suppose you'll be sorted into?"

Jase instantly felt his stomach start to churn at the question. He knew that they made a mistake and that he wasn't really a wizard at all. He didn't fit any of the houses at all! He wasn't brave or smart or cunning or talented! He was just Jase, just Jase Dursley. "I suppose that anything would be alright," Ben answered confidently. Jase simply nodded, unable to get the knot out of his throat to do anything else.

"Personally, I want either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. My entire family has been in Slytherin for 12 generations so I know that my grandfather would disown me if I got into anywhere else." She smirked mischievously. "I really think that my grandmother and father might be infuriated if I got into Gryffindor."

The boats sprung to life and started gliding across the still lake. All of the children fell silent as they looked ahead, searching for the light of the castle that was to be their home for the next seven years. It was absolutely huge and lit up like a Christmas tree. There were hundreds of windows and each contained a light candle. The light reflected off of the glass-like water giving it an eerie glow and an almost golden tone to the entire lake. Jase looked up at the castle and realized that it gave off a welcoming glow all its own.

The ride ended with a jolt as the boats hit the shore and Jase felt the knots in his stomach return. The large man led them to a door on the side of the school and knocked loudly twice before it opened seemingly by itself. Jase had to wonder if it simply opened because he had broken it. The first years filed into a small room at the base of a large stone staircase.

At the top of the stairs stood a tall man in a set of navy blue robes. Jase couldn't help but sigh a bit with relief when the man winked at him, it was Professor Longbottom. He smiled and held up a hand, quickly silencing the chattering children.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, your new home. We have four houses and you will be sorted into one of these houses. The other members of your house will be like your family at school, you will have class with them, you will live with them and you will eat with them." Professor Longbottom was one of those people who had the ability to talk to a group and still have everyone think that he was talking directly to just them. "In a few moments, we'll go through these doors and to your sorting ceremony."

Professor Longbottom left the room silently and as the door shut, the nervous first years erupted into chatter.

"Ben, how are we sorted?" Jase turned to look at the blonde boy, who had become noticeably paler.

"Dunno, I never really thought to ask when I was little and once I started to when I got my letter, no one would tell me," Ben gulped.

"I don't know," Cassie said from behind Jase, making him nearly jump out of his skin "My brothers said that it's awful."

Professor Longbottom swept back into the room with a gentle smile, "Let's go!"

He led them into the most magnificent room that Jase had ever seen. It was lit by hundreds of candles that were floating on their own. "Look up there!" Jase heard a round boy with sandy colored hair exclaim. He followed the boy's gaze up and nearly lost his breath. The ceiling was the clear perfect night sky outside and yet there was no reflection and no glare from the glass that had to be covering it. He could clearly see the big dipper and little dipper and a few other constellations that he couldn't quite remember the names of.

"It's a spell," Cassie whispered to a girl with bright golden eyes. "It looks just like the sky outside, no matter what the weather is. Personally, I can't wait for the first big thunderstorm just to see how it reacts."

There were four long tables filled with students who were all staring directly at the first years walking up the center aisle of the Great Hall. Jase couldn't think of any name that could fit the room better than the Great Hall. It was absolutely magnificent.

They stood in the front of the hall in between the students and the raised platform of adults that Jase assumed was the staff table. He looked up and noticed that almost all of them were smiling and sighed a bit with relief maybe his classes wouldn't be so bad after all.

In front of the table of teachers was a small three-legged stool that held a rather dingy looking hat with multiple patches.

"I'll call your name, you will step forward and be sorted." Professor Longbottom said as he unrolled a piece of parchment paper.

"Aaron, Logan!" A boy who had been shaking so badly that he could barely walk, stumbled forward and nearly toppled the chair before righting himself and having the hat placed on his head. He winced as if it was the most painful thing that he had every experience.

What did it do? Did it really hurt that bad? How did a hat sort you? Did it poke your brain? The thoughts were whirring through Jase's head so quickly that he could barely keep up. He felt his stomach twist into another knot so tight that he thought it might never come undone.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat cried in a rasping voice and the table to the right erupted in cheers. Logan Aaron sighed with relief and put the hat back on the stool before going to sit with the yellow and black adorned students.

"Anderson, Jacob!" Jacob was a confident looking boy who smiled out at everyone from the stool as if he were a king ruling over his court.

"SLYTHERIN!" The hat boomed a moment later and the table of silver and green cheered. IN Jase's mind, they all looked quite unpleasant and a bit brutish, much like his cousin Walker.

"Bones, Hannah" Professor Longbottom called. After nearly three minutes, the hat opened it's ragged edges and cried "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Cameron, Ava was also sorted into Hufflepuff and Conrall, Ethan became the first Ravenclaw.

As the list got closer and closer to the D's, Jase felt his stomach tighten and Emma-Claire, appeared out of nowhere and grabbed his hand, squeezing almost as hard as his stomach.

"Dursley, Emma" Professor Longbottom said as he looked directly at the girl. Jase felt his heart clench as the hat sat on her head without moving or saying anything. What if Emma was right? What if she wasn't really a witch at all and Hogwarts had gotten it wrong? He felt his breathing start to quicken as they waited longer and longer for her house to be announced.

"RAVENCLAW!" The ragged hat finally called and Jase sighed with relief before freezing as he realized that his own name would be next.

But it wasn't, instead Flint, Marcia was sorted to Slytherin along with Goyle, Tristan. A boy who stumbled forward and nearly fell on his face named Gains, Alexander was the first Gryffindor and was met by a chorus of roaring cheers from the gold and scarlet table.

"Goldstein, Joshua!" was next and was promptly sorted into Ravenclaw. Jase felt as if he was going to faint. He had been right. He wasn't a wizard at all, this was all some terrible dream that he was soon going to wake up from hopefully because he wasn't going to be sorted at all. He was going to be sent back home to pretend as if he hadn't been given a wand and that he hadn't seen the beautiful Great Hall.

Hartwell, Eve was the next Gryffindor and Holder, Taylor and Holden, Tyler became Hufflepuffs. Iyan, Dante was sorted into Slytherin and he smiled smugly as he walked toward the table.

"Jones"..."Kent"..."Kipling"..."Leonard"...Lucas...Madley, Kenneth" were all sorted.

"Malfoy, Chara" The blonde girl that Jase recognized as Emma's friend who's family had all been Slytherin, stepped forward. She sat daintily down on the short stool and the hat had barely touched her head before shouting, "RAVENCLAW!" She smiled so widely that Jase thought her jaw might disconnect from her petite face as she joined the bronze and blue table with Emma. She smiled directly at Professor Lonbottom who looked quizzically at her. He must have known about the 12 other generations who weren't likely to be happy with her sorting. Araminta Moon went to Gryffindor and Miriam Nott went to Slytherin. Perks, Samantha and Perks, Savannah were both sorted into Hufflepuff. Jase wondered if other people could hear his heart beating it was so loud that he found it deafening as they got further and further from where his last name should have been. Maybe he had been added at the last minute and had been added at the bottom of the list, which would possibly be the cruelest joke that he had ever heard of.

Then finally, he heard it, "Potter, James!" He looked around with everyone else as a mummer went through the crowd before he realized that Potter, James was him. He stepped forward.

"He said Potter, didn't he?"

"THat's impossible!"

"I didn't know that they still had a son!"

"How cold he have survived that?" The crowd was murmuring before Professor Longbottom cleared his throat menacingly and smiled at Jase before gingerly setting the ancient hat down on his head.

"Hmmm..." he heard a small voice inside his head "A Potter, aye? I haven't seen a mind like your since your father's. Yes, you are a good deal like him. Actually, you are a good deal like them both, thankfully you seemed to get the better sides of them." The hat chuckled. "Although I do see a bit of your mother's fiery temper in there. Very intelligent, I suppose your Aunt would be proud of you for that one with your books and all. You have a great mind and great talent, oh yes, so much talent. You also have a great desire to prove yourself. Well, let's see, talented, intelligent and ambitious, I think I know just were to put you -"

"GRYFFINDOR!" Jase jumped as he realized that the hat had spoken to everyone. He was a Gryffindor! The far left table cheered louder than they had for anyone else. Jase smiled the biggest he had in his entire life as he sat down beside Eventa, Levi who had also been sorted into Gryffindor. He watched with a relaxed smiled as Roland, Quinn joined Ravenclaw and Rankin, Oliver joined Hufflepuff.

"Scamander, Cassiopeia!" Professor Longbottom smiled at her as she waved slightly to him. Her silvery eyes searched the Gryffindor table and she smiled as the hat was placed on her head and two identical red headed teenage boys gave her matching thumbs up. They must have been the brothers that she had mentioned who had lied to her, telling her that the hat was awful.

The hat fell over her eyes just before it opened it's ragged edge and yelled, "GRYFFINDOR!"

As she sighed and ran over to the table, Jase heard someone down the table say "That's the whole family!"

Leaning down the table, she waved and Jase could've sworn that nearly half the table waved back.

"Thatcher, Benedict!" Ben stepped forward looking utterly green. Jase could see his lips moving as if he were talking to the hat and they sat there for what felt like forever.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat cried and Jase sighed. He was glad that his only friend so far was in the same house as him. Ben ran to the table and sat down beside Jase, his bright brown eyes were sparkling with excitement.

"Why didn't you tell me you were James Potter?" he breathed as the last few students were sorted in the background.

"I didn't think of it to be honest. I've gone by Jase Dursley for as long as I can remember," Jase shrugged. The sorting ended with Zabini, Damion joining the Slytherin table.

As Professor Longbottom carried the hat and stool off to the side, a tall, willowy, woman wearing midnight blue robes that were speckled with silver stepped forward.

"Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" she smiled warmly. "For those of you who don't know me, I'm Professor Amelia Woodward, Headmistress of this wonderful school. I just have a few announcements before we are all too full to care. I'd, first off, like to remind everyone that the Forbidden Forest is forbidden to all students. Also, the corridor passing the statute of Lachlan the Lanky on the seventh floor is forbidden." She said sternly, her chin-length silver hair swaying as she moved her head. "On a much more pleasant note, I would like to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Thompson!" A tall man with broad shoulders and sandy brown hair stood up and waved slightly. A ripple when through the older students at the news. "What about Professor Bones?"

"She wasn't that old!"

"Is she okay?"

Professor Woodward held up a long fingered hand and the room fell silent. "Now, I believe it time for a small meal." She smirked.

Jase looked back at the table to see that the most food he had ever seen in his life had suddenly appeared. To call this a small meal was like calling Hagrid a midget. Jase took a large bite of steak and kidney pie and he nearly moaned it was so amazing. It had always been his favorite food and although he would never tell her, this was even better than his Aunt Jessica's.

"So, what do think about Farber?" Wes, one of the other first year boys in Gryffindor, asked.

"About what?" Jase asked through another mouthful of steak and kidney pie.

"You don't know what Quidditch is?" someone else exclaimed. Jase looked and saw one of the two boys with strawberry blonde hair that he recognized as Cassie's older brothers.

"No, should I?" Jase started to wonder if it was a food or something. Maybe that's what the mud pudding was called, Quidditch pudding. It seemed fitting.

"Of course you should know what Quidditch is! It's only the best sport known to man!" Well, there went his pudding idea. Quidditch seemed like an absurd name for a sport although he supposed that there were some people who thought football sounded absurd.

The rest of the feast went quickly as the other boys explained the wizarding sport to him and although he understood little of it, Jase liked having the company as it was more people taking to him at once then he had in a long time.

"There are 700 fouls although some of them are completely bonkers." The twin that Jase thought was Lorcan said.

"Like they felt it nessecary to state that you can't attack another player with an axe." Lysander scoffed.

"It's obviously much simpler to just bludgeon them with the beater's bat! You already have it in your hand!"Lorcan smiled deviously at Cassie who looked as if she could beat him with a bat.

"Alright everyone, sleep tight! I want to see you all bright-eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow for your first day of classes!" Professor Woodward smiled brightly as she waved her hand again and everything on the four long tables disappeared. "Prefects, please lead your first years up to your house common rooms."

A great scraping noise sounded as the benches were pushed back and a tall pretty girl with long red hair stood up. "First years!" She called. Beside her, an exceptionally tall boy with dark brown hair stood up and also called for the first years. Jase had the feeling that he should know both of them but he couldn't figure out where he would have met them. All of the youngest Gryffindors crowded close, trying to keep from getting swept away in the crush of people all heading for the exit.

"Alright, so I'm Teddy Lupin, Head Boy." He smiled and Jase noticed that his eyes were the color of liquid gold.

"And I'm Victoire, sixth year Prefect!" The pretty red head smiled brightly. "If you need anything, please feel free to come and look for one of us."

"But if you can't find either of us, you probably shouldn't come looking." He smiled and grabbed at her hip. Victoire giggled and swatted his hand away.

"Stop it, you're supposed to be setting a good example." It was obvious by the way that she was smiling that she was pleased with all of the attention he was showing her.

"This is the most direct path to Gryffindor tower but as you get more comfortable with Hogwarts, I'm sure that you'll find your own way." The girl smiled as she walked backwards.

"Watch, there's a trick step that will catch your foot," Teddy said just as Levi Eventa's foot caught and he fell flat on his face. "Congratulations, you found it!"

"You need to be careful because," she stopped suddenly causing Cassie Scamander to run face first into her back, "the staircases move whenever they feel like."

Just as she finished her sentence, a high pitched shriek emitted from the Ravenclaw first years as the staircase they were on, suddenly started to move.

"Just like that," Teddy nodded with a mischevious grin. As they walked up a second staircase, Jase was silently praying that none of them moved because he was sure that Levi would fall off and die.

Teddy explained that the Gryffindor Common Room was at the base of Gryffindor Tower and that the only entrance to both was on the Seventh Floor.

"What do you do in the common room, exactly?" A girl named Araminta piped up.

"Think of the common room as your parlour at home, you would do all of the same things as you would there. Most people study, do homework, talk with their friends, play games and -"

"And Gryffindor has the best parties in our common room." Teddy smiled widely as Victoire rolled her eyes.

"That too," she said just as they stopped in front of a portrait of a woman who Jase supposed had been pretty at one time although she had aged past her prime of life. She was wearing a rather large pink taffeta dress that was spread out around her.

"Password?" she asked in a very proper accent. Jase jumped a bit, he still wasn't used to moving pictures and he doubted that he would ever be. On the train ride in Ben had shown him some Chocolate Frog cards that moved and Jase really thought that it was quite eerie.

"Now the password changes quite often so make sure that you check the bulletin board inside of the common room. The current password is Felix Felicis." She said to the woman with a smile.

The portrait smiled back making the skin around her blue eyes crinkle as she swung forward to reveal a portrait hole. As they filed inside, Jase felt his mouth drop open. The common room was a large circular room that was completely decorated in scarlett and gold. One wall was almost completely taken up by the largest fireplace that he had ever seen, the other walls were decorated with small portraits of what Jase supposed were famous former Gryffindors and tapestries of red and gold. All in all it was a very stunning effect that almost demanded house pride.

"Welcome home," Victoire smiled as she climbed through the porthole with Teddy following closely behind "now girls, come with me and you boys go with Teddy. Good night!" She chirped before gliding to the door on the right.

"Alright men, come on." Teddy nodded toward the door on the left. "This is Gryffindor tower, you boys are on the top floor and will be for the next 7 years. If for some God forsaken reason you need me in the middle of the night, I'm on the very bottom floor. As they passed each door, Jase noticed that they each had a golden plaque on them that read what year lived inside.

When they finally reached the top of the tower, Teddy didn't dauddle with them, simply bading them goodnight before ducking out of the door. The room was larger than Jase had imagined it. There were five four poster beds all adorned with scarlett colored hangings that could be shut for privacy. He noticed that all of their luggage had been brought up and that at the foot of each bed was a trunk.

"Alright, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not tired at all," a boy with dreadlocks said.

"I feel like we just got here and now they expect us to go to bed?" a tall husky boy with sandy brown hair agreed. The rest of the boys in the room silently agreed as they joined the other two on the floor, leaning against their trunks. Jase was pleased to see that his bed was beside Ben's.

"I'm Wes, Wes Jordan." The boy with the dreads introduced himself first. It was obvious that he was the most outspoken of the group.

"Alec Gains," The husky boy smiled.

As they went around the room introducing themselves, Jase noticed them all start to relax slightly. Jase was the last to say his name and without missing a beat he said, "Jase Potter,"

He startled himself a bit by using the last name Potter, he couldn't remember a time when he had used that last name, he had always had in hyphenated in records and such but he always went by Dursley.

"So you're the famous James Potter, are you?" Wes looked at him quizzically. His eyes were so dark that they were almost black and they were concentrated solely on Jase's forehead.

"I suppose I am," He shrugged. How was he suppose to answer that question? The truth was that he had absolutely no idea why he was famous or what he was famous for but he wasn't going to admit that to these boys that he barely knew. But thankfully that was the last they spoke on the subject, quickly changing it to talking about some form of sweet known as Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean that apparently came in all sort of terrible flavours in addition to the normal ones.

That night when the boys finally went to sleep, Jase smiled to himself as he stared at the scarlet ceiling. He finally knew what it was like to make friends or at least start to make friends who didn't judge him because he was different. He didn't have a Walker here keeping people from liking him. For once, Jase might actually get to make friends.

**A/N: I'm so sorry that I'm taking so long but I don't have much time to write. I know it's a terrible excuse but my 2 year old goddaughter is currently living with me because her mum just walked out so she takes up most of my time. **

**I'm hoping to get the next chapter out in the next few days!**

**Thanks to my wonderful beta Destiny! I would be terribly lost without her!**

**Thanks! **

**-Prim**


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